11/20/2009      

Organised by the Oceania Table Tennis Federation in conjunction with ITTF Development Programme, Norfolk Island hosted a visit by Scott Houston, the Oceania Development Officer from Thursday 11 November to Wednesday 18 November 2009.

The purpose of the visit was to spread the word of table tennis across the island and to find the necessary people who would be interested in starting and running the Norfolk Island Table Tennis Association.

In both instances there was success.

 11/20/2009      

An island country situated in the Indian Ocean some 700 kilometres south west of Sri Lanka, the Maldives was the home for an ITTF Development Programme course from Sunday 8th to Tuesday 17th November 2009 that comprised a Training Camp and Tournament Organisation Course.

Expert for the course was Spain’s Ramon Ortega Montes.

Fishing is the traditional way of life but as travel makes the world ever more accessible, tourism has grown immensely and as Ramon Ortega was to discover it is the holiday destination for two celebrated table tennis players.

 11/19/2009      

Situated in Western Asia sharing borders with Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; Iraq is a country that has suffered in recent times from political unrest.

Strife as opposed to harmony has been the norm in the country, whose capital city is Baghdad and where a unifying force is needed.

Something that brings co-operation and understanding.

 11/18/2009      

Situated in West Africa with an Atlantic coastline and therefore splendid beaches, Sierra Leone was the home for an ITTF/PTT Level One Coach Education course and Training Camp from Monday 26th October to Friday 30th October 2009.

The course was organised under the auspices of Olympic Solidarity and the ITTF Development Programme.

Expert for the course was Egypt’s Mohamed Gharib.

 11/18/2009      

Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, proved an excellent home for an ITTF level Two Coaches Course held under the auspices of the ITTF Development Programme from Monday 9th to Saturday 14th November 2009.

The course was led by Philippe Molodzoff, the author of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual with 14 students, all from Malaysia and including four women, being in attendance.

Host for the course was the National Sports Centre where a dedicated hall for table tennis, which housed seven tables and an area for theory sessions, equipped with a laptop, projector and board were available.

 11/17/2009      

Marketing is an increasingly important facet of sport.

It is a key word.

We must remember that we are in a market place; we have competitors just as in any other walk of business life.

Our task is to attract more customers; for sport and of course table tennis is no exception, our customers are players, our customers are sponsors and they are important.

 11/17/2009      

Organised by University of Leipzig with the support of the German Table Tennis Association in co-operation with the ITTF Development Programme, a total of 12 coaches from Latin America have been attending this University since August 2009.

The aim is to gain an A Level Licence under the German Certification Scheme and an ITTF Level Two Certificate when the course ends in January 2010. Matters are under the direction of Marco Fehl, an ITTF Level Two Course Conductor and responsible for coach education within the German Table Tennis Association.

 11/11/2009      

Brazil’s Lincon Yasuda was the expert on duty for an ITTF Level Two Coaches Course, conducted under the auspices of the ITTF/LATTU Development Programme, staged in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires from Tuesday 3rd to Sunday 8th November 2009.

Argentina is a country that is making notable strides in the sport of table tennis with its young players proving most competitive at continental junior tournaments and on the ITTF Junior Circuit.

A total of 20 coaches attended the course, 18 from Argentina, one from Paraguay and one from Uruguay.

The venue was the National High Level Centre in Buenos Aires.

 11/11/2009      

Funded by the Jordan Federation for School Sports, Mohammed Atoom recently conducted an ITTF/PTT Level One Course in Amman, often referred to by locals as the city of the seven hills.

A successful course, it fulfilled one of the major targets of the ITTF Development Programme, that being a national association taking the initiative to organize a course on an independent basis. Mohammed Atoom had attended a Course Conductors Training Programme course with Leandro Olvech, the ITTF Co-ordinator of Development Programmes in Egypt earlier this year.

 11/11/2009      

Croatia’s Branka Batinic, alongside the host nation’s Jolanta Prusiene, Romas Stankevicius and Viktoras Stankevicius were the coaches on duty for a training camp staged in Salcininkai, 50 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius from Monday 26th to Friday 30th October 2009.

The camp was for the most talented players in Lithuania born between 1996 and 2001, being organized in conjunction with the Lithuanian Table Tennis Association, the Lithuanian Table Tennis Support Foundation, the European Table Tennis Union and the ITTF Development Programme.